[OLPC Networking] Mesh network?

[Kevin Purcell]

Is there a testing plan (or even an testing "vision") for the mesh  
network?

How far along is the dev and test work? It seems like it's not too  
long before this ships and I've not seen much mentioned about it (but  
I'm mostly just reading the mailing lists and scanning the wikis).

This has been the area of the OLPC that has interested me the most  
(especially as I have a SDE/T QA background). Any way for me to  
contribute?

On Sep 6, 2006, at 2:03 PM, Krishna Sankar ((ksankar)) wrote:

> As usual, excellent questions & insights. Actually these need to go in
> the Wiki.
>
> a)    802.11s support (hardware and device drivers) will be built by
> Marvell
>
> b)    I haven't had the exposure to see if it will support 802.11(a/ 
> b/g)
> as well. We also need to check if the modes can be switched without a
> reset.
>
> c)    Things like multiple heterogeneous connections are the  
> "magic", to
> happen in the OLPC version of the network manager
>
> d)    Load balancing across multiple heterogeneous connections is a  
> good
> idea, am not sure it can be done even now.
>
> e)    Most probably the laptops will support infrastructure 802.11g as
> well as ad-hoc mode, but not simultaneously to act as a rely.
>
> f)	Naturally, the first version will have constrained capabilities,
> which will improve as we understand more about the
> topology/interference/power requirements and their interactions in the
> OLPC scenario i.e. the software that runs on the network substrate.
>
> g)	Many of the mesh features and network protocol switching will be
> controllable by software; thus leaving the hardware/firmware/ 
> drivers to
> optimize to the max, under normal circumstances.
>
> <soap_box>
> 	We cannot add networking features with reckless abandonment, as
> we are constrained by power and maximize functionality with minimum
> power. Hence many cautionary e-mails, on the protocols, message
> exchanges et al.
> </soap_box>
>
> All in all, exciting times are ahead !
>
> Cheers
> <k/>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> 	From: MBurns [mailto:maburns at gmail.com]
> 	Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 1:43 PM
> 	To: Krishna Sankar (ksankar); networking at laptop.org
> 	Subject: Re: [OLPC Networking] Mesh network?
> 	
> 	
>
>
> 	On 9/6/06, Krishna Sankar (ksankar) <ksankar at cisco.com> wrote:
>
> 		        c)    The mesh (802.11s) will be implemented as
> a Layer1/L2 artifact
>
>
>
> 	Nice. This was what I was looking for. Does anyone know on how
> well/if at all  802.11s is supported in the wild thus far? Is it
> something the OLPC will be building into the networking stack from the
> ground up, or is the heavy moving already done?
> 	
> 	With regards to an Internet access. I assume that a laptop
> plugged in to, say, a modem, or some type of wired connection would
> seemlessly (auto-magically?) announce/forward that connection to other
> laptops on the ad hoc mesh? Is the idea of 2 different laptops, each
> with 2 different connections (1 broadband, 1 narrowband connection)  
> both
> on the same mesh? Would they both share connectivity, and if so, would
> we be providing metrics to choose best route or load balancing?
> 	
> 	Finally, will a laptop be able to be on a wireless LAN (802.11g
> network) and also be able to share/relay that connection to other
> laptops (that might be out of range of the .11g network). That is to
> say, can we virtualize our wireless nic so as to be on two networks at
> once, etc.
> 	
> 	Lots of questions and few answers, no doubt. But this is the
> place to ask. :)
> 	
> 	[/rant]
> 	
> 	Michael Burns
> 	Network Engineering
> 	Oregon State University
> 	
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>

--
Kevin Purcell
kevinpurcell at pobox.com